JABBERWOCKY

Age Range: 6 - 9

Pub Date: Oct. 4th, 2011Publisher: Pan Piccolo

A laughably over-the-top rendition of the poem, intended to be spooky.

The point of view advances at a walking pace through a pitch-black, woodsy landscape while a hysterically emotive narrator gasps out the verses. Listeners wielding a digital “flashlight” can catch quick glimpses of (presumably) the eldritch Jubjub bird, an ungainly Bandersnatch and other toothy creatures lunging into view or flitting past. Repeat strolls bring the monsters out in different order—but the Jabberwock itself is never more than a pair of glowing eyes that advance, then recede as the poem draws to a close, leaving the tenebrous setting unchanged with no fight, vorpal sword, head or beamish boy ever in evidence. There is no option to see the text or to cut off the audio, the screen is so dark that even the slightest reflection is a major distraction and the fingertip-directed spotlight responds with frustrating sluggishness.

Not even Humpty Dumpty could parse this nonsense. (iPad poem app. 6-9)